All-Star Squadron
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The All-Star Squadron is a DC Comics fictional superhero team that debuted in Justice League of America #193 (August 1981). Created by Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler and Jerry Ordway.
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[edit] Fictional history
The book chronicled the adventures of a large team of superheroes, comprised mostly of featured characters owned by DC comics that had appeared in the Golden Age of Comic Books. It included members of the Justice Society of America, Freedom Fighters, and Seven Soldiers of Victory, as well as a small number of solo heroes. The premise was that, on the day of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt gathered available superheroes at the White House and asked them to work together to battle sabotage and keep the peace on the home front during World War II. At the time, many of the Justice Society members had been captured by the villain Per Degaton, but the available heroes were asked to first guard against a potential attack on the American West Coast. Degaton himself used some stolen Japanese planes to launch such an attack, so the new Squadron's first major mission was to stop the attack and rescue the captured heroes, who also became part of the new group. The rationale for not using the Squadron in combat situations in the European or Pacific Theaters of War was that Adolf Hitler had possession of the Spear of Destiny, a mystical object that gave him control of any superheroes with magic-based powers or a vulnerability to magic (including Superman, Green Lantern, Dr. Fate, and others) who crossed into territory held by the Axis Powers.
The All-Star Squadron was an example of "retroactive continuity" or "retcon", as it rewrote the already-established history of DC superheroes that had been published during the 1940s. The first known use of the term "retcon" was by Roy Thomas in the letter column of All-Star Squadron #20 (April, 1983).
The Trylon and Perisphere, actual structures constructed in New York City for the 1939 New York World's Fair, housed the Squadron's headquarters. The All-Star Squadron had a robotic butler named Gernsback, who was based on the Elektro robots from the fair and was probably named after Hugo Gernsback.
Originally, the All-Star Squadron was supposed to exist on "Earth-Two", a parallel world used by DC as the venue for stories occurring during the 1940s, and including heroes only published during that era as well as the early versions of characters still published up to the present day such as Batman and Superman (the contemporary versions of those characters existed on "Earth-One"). After the 1985 DC Comics event Crisis on Infinite Earths merged the parallel worlds into one continuity, the duplicate superhero versions were eliminated. The All-Star Squadron was then itself retconned and left only with the characters unique to that time period, so that Batman, Superman, etc., were never Squadron members.
[edit] Creators
[edit] Writers
- Roy Thomas - # 1-67 (Sep 1981-Mar 1987); Annual #1-3 (1982-84)
- Paul Kupperberg - # 41, 44 (Jan 1985, Mar 1985)
- Mike Baron - # 43 (Feb 1985)
- Dann Thomas - # 46, 51, 53-55 (Jun 1985, Nov 1985, Jan 1986-Mar 1986)
[edit] Artists
- Rich Buckler - # 1-5, 36 (Sep 1981-Jan 1982, Aug 1984)
- Adrian Gonzalez - # 6-18 (Feb 1982-Feb 1983); Annual #1 (1982)
- Jerry Ordway - # 19-26, 29 (Mar 1983-Oct 1983, Jan 1984); Annual #2 (1983)
- Richard Howell - # 27-28, 30, 40 (Nov 1983-Dec 1983, Feb 1984, Dec 1984)
- Rick Hoberg - # 31-35, 38-39 (Mar 1984-Jul 1984, Oct 1984-Nov 1984)
- Arvell Jones - # 37, 41-46, 50-55, 58-60, 67 (Sep 1984, Jan 1985-Jun 1985, Oct 1985-Mar 1986, Jun 1986-Aug 1986, Mar 1987)
- Todd McFarlane - # 47 (Jul 1985)
- Mike Harris - # 48-49, 61 (Aug 1985-Sep 1985, Sep 1986)
- Mike Clark - # 51, 56-57, 60 (Nov 1985, Apr 1986-May 1986, Aug 1986)
- Tony deZuniga - # 62 (Oct 1986)
- Mike Bair - # 63 (Nov 1986)
- Wayne Boring - # 64 (Dec 1986)
- Don Heck - # 65 (Jan 1987)
- Paul Kupperberg - # 66 (Feb 1987)
[edit] Cover artists
- Rich Buckler - # 1, 3-6, 36 (Sep 1981, Nov 1981-Feb 1982, Aug 1984)
- Joe Kubert - # 2, 7-18 (Oct 1981, Mar 1982-Feb 1983)
- Jerry Ordway - # 19-33, 50, 60 (Mar 1983-May 1984, Oct 1985, Aug 1986); Annual #1-2 (1982-83)
- Rick Hoberg - # 34-35, 37-39 (Jun 1984-Jul 1984, Sep 1984-Nov 1984); Annual #3 (1984)
- Arvell Jones - # 40-44, 46, 52, 55, 58-59, 64-66 (Dec 1984-Apr 1985, Jun 1985, Dec 1985, Mar 1986, Jun 1986-Jul 1986, Dec 1986-Feb 1987)
- Tim Burgard - # 45 (May 1985)
- Todd McFarlane - # 47 (Jul 1985)
- Mike Harris - # 48-49, 61-62 (Aug 1985-Sep 1985, Sep 1986-Oct 1986)
- Mike Clark - # 51, 53-54, 56-57 (Nov 1985, Jan 1986-Feb 1986, Apr 1986-May 1986)
- Mike Bair - # 63 (Nov 1986)
- Tom Grindberg - # 67 (Mar 1987)
